Child dog attack victim: "I thought I was going to die"

Pit bull mauling victim Brandon Williams recovers Friday at the University of Tennessee Medical Center. The ten-year-old was attacked by two dogs Wednesday in Newport, Tenn. Williams has undergone extensive surgery to reattach his ears, which were torn off in the attack. (TONY WILLIAMS/SPECIAL TO THE NEWS SENTINEL)

Jennifer Switzer

Anthony Lugar

Brandon Williams is seen here in a cellphone photo taken by his father, Tony, as he recovers in the intensive care unit Friday at the University of Tennessee Medical Center. The ten-year-old was attacked by a neighbor's dogs on Wednesday near his home in Newport, Tenn. (ADAM BRIMER/NEWS SENTINEL)

Tony Williams talks on his cellphone Friday at the University of Tennessee Medical Center. Williams' son, Brandon, 10, is recovering after being attacked by a neighbor's pit bulls in Newport, Tenn. (ADAM BRIMER/NEWS SENTINEL)

"I was just carrying a package to a neighbor," said Brandon Williams, the 10-year-old Newport, Tenn., boy whose ears were torn from his head, among other serious injuries, during a dog attack Wednesday near his home.

Brandon, a soft-spoken boy with big blue eyes, said a woman who sat on the porch of the home where the dogs live watched the mauling.

"He didn't make it a little ways out of the yard and it happened. My wife was outside, saw it and came screaming at me bloody murder."

He said he heard the woman, whom he later identified as Switzer, call for two smaller dogs in the road, then noticed the bigger dogs charging him.

He dropped the package and ran.

But they caught him, knocked him over and the pit bull, who authorities say was in heat, mauled him.

"I thought I was going to die," he said Friday from his room in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit at the University of Tennessee Medical Center.

He doesn't remember much after that.

But his parents do.

Brandon's father, Tony Williams, said his son might not have been attacked had a UPS driver delivered the package he carried to the correct address.

"I'd been fussing with them for the last 14 months about them delivering to the wrong address," his dad said as he sat inside the hospital Friday. "He didn't make it a little ways out of the yard and it happened. My wife was outside, saw it and came screaming at me bloody murder."

Brandon's father rushed out the front door, saw the horror on the street and said he did what any parent in his situation would do.

He attacked.

"I took my fist to its face," his dad said, adding he began punching it as hard as he could.

Meanwhile, the large black dog bit him on the hand as he tried to pull the pit bull mix off his son.

"You know how dogs can sense fear? I made it sense that I was gonna kill it," he said. "The male black dog backed off."

It took about five minutes, he said, to unlock the pit bull's jaws from his son's head.

"If it had been five minutes longer he probably would have been killed," Brandon's dad said Friday.

He said he immediately grabbed hold of the dogs' collar and tightly twisted it to restrain it.

"I was going to kill it," he said. "I wanted to kill it."

He said he planned to rip its trachea out, but his hand was so weak from twisting the collar, he couldn't.

As he subdued the pit bull, neighbors rushed to Brandon's aide and used towels to suppress the bleeding.

Law enforcement arrived, and deputies found Brandon's ears in the road.

A neighbor was forced to shot and kill the black dog as he tried to catch it. It got too aggressive, deputies said.

Animal control took the pit bill to the Newport Animal Shelter to be quarantined.

Brandon was flown by helicopter to the hospital where he underwent reconstructive surgery Thursday morning to reattach his ears. Doctor's also performed surgery on his arm, leg and neck.

Brandon's condition was upgraded from serious to stable Friday."He's doing pretty good," said his mother, Christy Williams. "The doctors' say they're going to keep him here a few more weeks."

He's bruised, swollen and taking morphine.

But his spirits remained high, his dad said.

On Friday, he asked mom and dad for his favorite drink. They left the hospital seconds later in search of blueberry Bug Juice. They found it at a nearby Pilot gas station off Kingston Pike.

When they returned to the room, Brandon was smiling as hospital staff set up a PlayStation 3 in his room.

He spent the rest of the evening playing the game Madagascar 2 — with one hand.

"His other hand is wrapped and in a splint and he's not allowed to use it," Brandon's dad said. "Doctors had to fix his tendons, which were torn to bits when pit bull grabbed it."

While recovering his dad said Brandon saw a photo of Switzer on television, pointed at the TV and said, "That's her daddy."

Although Brandon's been in good spirits, he did frown Friday as he recalled details of the mauling.

But once again it was dad to the rescue.

He smiled then told his son, "Hey buddy, you're on TV. You're famous now."

Brandon paused, giggled, then went back to playing PlayStation — with one hand.